Early Years

Alex can barely remember a time in his life where music wasn't part of it. He remembers jumping around his house to Beatles records at two years old, strumming an inflatable guitar.

When Alex was six, he had his first music class. The teacher walked in, wearing cool shades, and pulled out a guitar covered in stickers - and Alex immediately knew he wanted to play guitar. But a local music store recommended that he start with piano lessons. "Kids your age are more likely to get discouraged with the guitar," said the owner. "It can take weeks to learn a song, and you might have trouble with blisters on your fingers." So Alex spent the next few years taking piano lessons and forgot about the guitar...for a while.

When Alex was 10, he was inspired to play guitar again and started taking lessons, alternating between guitar and piano each week. But guitar lessons weren't as fun as he hoped they would be. He learned his chords and how to play simple melody lines, but there wasn't a clear progression of growth. Eventually, Alex stopped focusing on practicing guitar and was happy to play chords and make up songs with his other musician friends.

Changes

Around age 12, in response to challenging personal circumstances, Alex began to develop a philosophy of taking the initiative to make things happen - to take ownership of problems, to see if he could change himself to change the circumstances around him. He began developing a self-awareness in his social life, and eventually applied this new philosophy to playing guitar: he decided he was going to start practicing the guitar seriously again. But this time, he was going to do it himself.

Around the same time, he heard the song "Trampled Underfoot" by Led Zeppelin. It was the coolest riff he had ever heard. Jimmy Page, the guitarist, fit the look of the rock god - he looked cool, played cool, and sounded cool. Page's guitar playing inspired Alex so much that he got himself a tab book and decided to learn "Stairway to Heaven" note-for-note. Looking back, it was a crazy idea. Alex knew chords and could play a few solos, like Come Together and Roll Over Beethoven, but he never really understood how to play lead guitar and didn't even understand what the pentatonic scale was. Attempting to learn Stairway was way past his skill level.

How he persisted, he'll never know, because Alex didn't really stick with things at the time. But, no matter how discouraging it was, no matter how many times he put the guitar down in frustration, he kept at it. And after months of practice, he was able to play the whole song. The payoff was enormous: after Stairway, learning other songs was easy, and he kept learning more songs and solos by his idols: Jimmy Page, George Harrison, and Eric Clapton. He felt more comfortable composing his own leads, which he got to practice while being in a band with his friends from school.

Alex kept up his guitar playing through high school, eventually ending piano lessons and focusing full time on the guitar. Though he's taken a few guitar lessons over the years, most of Alex's style came from being self-taught and experimentation.

Playing in bands has been one of the most rewarding musical and personal experiences for Alex. He continued playing with a band in high school, and eventually met some lifelong friends and great musicians in college. He joined his college's jazz band as a guitarist, eventually becoming president of the group. He also starting playing organ at church and taking voice lessons.

Going Solo

But by the end of 2021, Alex was starting to feel dissatisified musically. After college, gigs were few and far between. Between people's busy schedules and the pandemic, he mostly played guitar at home and posted covers online. 

One October night, a thought popped into his subconscious mind: "Why not gig by yourself?"

Alex felt confident as a multi-instrumentalist, but not as a singer. So he started to work hard on becoming a better singer, or at least, good enough to feel comfortable singing in tune live.

During 2022, he began building a repertoire of songs he could sing and play on guitar. As he developed the set, he had another crazy idea: to use his background in IT and A/V to create a way to play shows as a one-man band. He would play and sing guitar live...and he would play drums, bass, keyboard, and backup vocals...at the same time. He recorded custom backing tracks so he could accompany himself live, which gave him the ability to sound like a full band.

On June 10, 2023, after over a year of planning and work, Alex played his first solo show at The View Grill (now Jeanine's American Bistro) in Nassau County, NY - and he never looked back.

Today, you can catch Alex gigging solo or with a band. Come down to see a live performance - you won't be disappointed!